As made predominantly of corrugated cardboard, multi-ply paper, or similar material, pallets of the type noted above and methods for their manufacture are exemplified in Schmidtke U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,325, Quasnick U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,074, and Smith U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,991. Typically, such a pallet comprises elongate stringers and decking members, each having a desired configuration when viewed endwise. It is convenient to refer to each stringer or decking member as a beam.
As disclosed in each of these patents, each beam has a generally trapezoidal configuration when viewed endwise, as a result of a sheet of corrugated paperboard, multi-ply paper, or similar material having been folded to form multiple panel portions, which define two symmetrical halves of such beam. The generally trapezoidal configuration has two parallel bases, namely a relatively wide base and a relatively narrow base, and two opposite, nonparallel sides extending between the relatively wide and relatively narrow bases. The trapezoidal configuration has two relatively widely spaced edges defining acute angles where the sides intersect the relatively wide base and two relatively narrowly spaced edges defining obtuse angles where the sides intersect the relatively narrow base.
At various stages in the manufacture of such a beam, an adhesive is applied to certain panel portions, which are to adhere to adjacent panel portions. At one stage in its manufacture, an adhesive is applied along a medial plane between the symmetrical halves of the beam. If a so-called "cold melt" adhesive is applied along the medial plane, it is necessary to hold the beam for a finite time, e.g. fifteen to twenty seconds, to permit such adhesive to cure sufficiently before the beam can be released without a material risk of such beam unfolding.
Such beams are manufactured at high production rates, e.g. two thousand beams per hour. Thus, a need has arisen for an efficient accumulator for receiving an indeterminate number of such beams, each with an adhesive applied thereto, and for holding each beam for a finite time to permit the adhesive to cure sufficiently for such beam to be released without a material risk of such beam unfolding.